The Last Rich Smile Of Fading Day
by winter156
Summary: Not explicit but there are some spoilers for ME3. Kind of a PWP, with a tiny bit of plot. The moments before the end are often the times that define and cement one's resolve.


Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me.

A/N: This one is for Rae D. Magdon. Enjoy!

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><p><strong>The Last Rich Smile Of Fading Day<strong>

"We don't have time, Liara," Shepard whispered raggedly, truth in her words but no conviction in her voice. Anderson was waiting on her to mount their last stand.

"We won't be long," Liara whispered softly before taking the earlobe in front of her lips into her mouth and sucking on it gently. Shepard gasped and shivered against her. Liara smiled, her hands working with practiced ease to remove Shepard's armor and lower her pants.

Shaking the fog of arousal that had descended on her mind, Shepard reached out to still Liara's busy hands. Regret heavy on her voice, breath still coming in short spurts as adrenaline and arousal pumped through her blood, Shepard spoke words she knew she must, "Anderson is waiting."

Undeterred, Liara broke the weak hold Shepard had on her wrists and continued to undo the Commander's pants. "I promised you a gift," the asari said between wet kisses she was trailing across the human's jaw. As Liara kissed her way down of what was available of Shepard's neck above the armor she wore, she pushed lightly against the human's mind and will. _Submit. Let me have you. If only for a few moments, let me lead._ Liara clamped her lips over a sensitive spot on Shepard's neck, biting down softly as her hands shoved pants and military issue briefs down Shepard's legs.

Feeling Shepard's nonverbal acquiescence, Liara sucked the spot she had bitten and ran her fingers through the soaking curls between the human's legs before promptly and without warning inserting two long, slender fingers into Shepard. The Commander inhaled sharply, heart rate tripling, oxygen suddenly becoming an issue. The human's hands reached out to grip the still fully clothed asari around the waist, not in protest but support as her knees may give out at any moment.

_Where has the shy and reserved archeologist I found on Therum gone?_ Shepard idly thought as she spread herself wider to better accommodate the hand that was frantically thrusting into her. Blood rushing in her ears, her own breathy moans drowning out almost all sound, Shepard almost missed Liara's whispered words.

"She has taken a hiatus until the universe as we know it isn't on the brink of annihilation," Liara decided to answer Shepard's thought out loud to keep herself grounded. Her mind and the Commander's were connected, she could feel Shepard's pleasure and it was driving her to distraction. She needed to keep a semblance of control if she were to deliver the gift she promised to the woman she loved.

"I thought," the Commander gasped as Liara's fingers hit a particularly sensitive spot inside her, "that the gift would be more on the metaphysical level." Shepard opened her eyes and noticed intense blue eyes staring at her. Eyes overflowing with so much love it felt like a physical caress when they moved over her features. Her insides quivered, clamping on the fingers inside her.

Liara slowed her thrusts, but made sure to drag her fingers across the rough patch of tissue inside Shepard. "It is," the asari admitted, "but we do so enjoy the physical part, it could only enhance the gift."

Shepard's hips met every thrust of Liara's fingers. Soft moans escaped her mouth even though she attempted to quell any sound. "No complaints here," Shepard ground out on uneven breaths. The human's mind was fuzzy with pleasure but she needed to ask before she lost the ability to think, "Why," she licked her dry lips, "why are your eyes blue?"

Liara's lips and tongue met Shepard's in a hot, wet embrace that had both women moaning into the other's mouth. When oxygen became a necessity, the asari pulled back laying her forehead on the human's. "We haven't melded," Liara finally addressed the question.

It took Shepard a moment to understand what Liara was saying, her body so close to the precipice that she was barely able to remember her original question. "Then how come I can feel you and hear you in here," the Commander pointed to her armor covered chest, "and in here," she pointed to her head before regaining her hold on the asari's waist, "like when we are melded?"

"We seem to always be connected," Liara said, slightly increasing the tempo of her thrusts feeling the velvet walls around her fingers tightening in anticipation of release, "and intimacy allows our minds to come together regardless if we meld or not."

"Is that normal?" Shepard asked with the last vestiges of her coherent mind.

"I," Liara hesitated, "am unsure. You are the only person I have ever been intimate with, so my experience is limited to what we have done." When Liara slowed to almost a stop in her sudden curiosity of something she had not truly considered before, Shepard growled in frustration. The Commander's mind pleaded with the asari: _Find out later!_

Hips grinding down into the stilled hand, whimpering in need, Shepard begged, "Please."

Feeling Shepard's overwhelming need, Liara softly kissed the human's lips in apology before lowering herself to her knees. The Commander's world narrowed to include only the asari, she nearly came from the sight of Liara on her knees the asari's blue head descending to the juncture of her legs. One of Shepard's hands slammed into the wall behind her in an attempt to keep herself upright, while the Commander's other hand slipped over Liara's very sensitive ridges to guide the scientist to where she needed her most.

At the touch of Liara's hot, wet tongue against her center, Shepard's world began to fall away. The Commander felt her knees give out as the asari's mouth focused on the bundle of nerves that as of yet had not been touched and blue hands began to thrust back into her hard and fast. She noted almost absently that despite her knees giving out she was still upright. _Biotics _bounced through her mind but she would not have cared if it was Reaper magic keeping her vertical at the moment. All Shepard knew was the searing heat at the center of her being and the delicious tightening that was about to explode her into a million pieces.

Shepard felt Liara mouth _Embrace Eternity_ against her flesh before the asari closed her lovely blue lips around her clit and sucked gently while her fingers pumped into the Commander rubbing against all the right places. Ragged cry escaping her throat, Shepard's body arched off the wall, hand firmly holding Liara as close to her as possible, as her world exploded into a kaleidoscope of color. Immediately she felt Liara with her, in her, around her; her mind went supernova.

An amalgam of light and color and raw, undistilled emotion flashed at the core of her very being. The Commander felt something warm, comfortable, safe, impenetrable wrap around her and Liara. She gasped as she realized what it was. Love. Liara's love for her. Her love for Liara. It was a physical entity surrounding them, binding them, intertwining two beings into one.

_This,_ Liara's mind whispered to hers, _this is my gift._

Through the exploding lights and euphoric feeling still enveloping her, Shepard could clearly see every moment with Liara. The desperation of their couplings before Ilos, the Collector base, and Cerberus headquarters. The slow build up of trust each time following the catastrophic events of each of those life altering experiences. The tried and true surety of their love after so much trial by fire. The hope each gave the other. The life they each lived and fought for.

Heart filling to overflowing, Shepard felt tears flow down her cheeks at the sheer beauty of what she was experiencing. With what little strength she had left, Shepard pulled Liara up into her arms. Noticing tears falling from obsidian eyes, Shepard tightly wrapped the asari in strong arms as wave after wave of emotion crashed into them.

Needing to stay connected, Shepard kissed Liara deeply heart thudding almost painfully against her chest as image after image, moment after moment, memory after memory flashed through their combined mind and soul.

An unfamiliar image, a memory yet unmade, flashed before their eyes. Earth green and lush on one side; Thessia's peaceful oceans stretched out teaming with life on the other side. Three asari children running, wrestling, having fun but never straying too far from them. It felt like peace. The sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, blessing them with the last rich smile of fading day and a promise that dawn was on its way.

Burying her face in Liara's neck, Shepard just held onto the asari as the intensity of everything they had just experienced faded.

"Can you stand, Shepard?" Liara asked softly, loathe to break the moment but aware that time was not on their side.

Using the wall behind her as support, the Commander allowed Liara to slip her underwear and pants back up before securing her armor over them. Task completed, both human and asari simply stared at one another.

"That was incredible," Shepard finally managed, though her voice was hoarse, "you were incredible." She reached out and gently rubbed the traces of tears from below blue eyes.

Liara kissed her palm before reaching to wipe the tears away from the Commander's face. Cupping Shepard's face, she leaned in to lay a chaste kiss upon the soldier's lips.

_I love you so much, Shepard,_ Liara thought as her eyes swept over the planes of the human's face.

"I love you too, Liara," Shepard whispered into the space between them before leaning down to place a final kiss on the asari's lips.

"Now let's go win this war," Shepard straightened, military persona back in place. "So we can get to making those three blue asari babies," the Commander's face split into a wide, beatific smile.

Liara's heart skipped a beat, "Goddess, help us."

Shepard's smile faded as her resolve hardened, _I will make that last image a reality._

Liara slipped her blue hand into Shepard's much paler hand. Squeezing it lightly, she ushered the Commander toward Admiral Anderson's command central. Her mind shouldering the weight of responsibility with Shepard.

_We will make that last image a reality._

**Fin_  
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